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How what's happening in American factories helps us understand what's happening in the broader economy.

Plus what hot weather means for the way we work. From American public media, this is Marketplace.

In Washington, D.C., I'm Kimberly Adams and for Kyra's doll who's on assignment in China covering Secretary Yellen's visit.

More from him later this week.

Today is Wednesday, July 5th. Good to have you with us.

It's become something of a regular pastime, both here and elsewhere, to try and read the tea leaves and predict when and if this economy is going to start.

Some economists have been warning for a while now about a possible recession as the Fed continues its efforts to fight inflation.

Today, we got what looks like some hard evidence of a slowdown in one sector anyway, manufacturing.

The Commerce Department reported that factory orders in May were up but by an underwhelming 3.10%.

And commerce revised the previous month's figure downward.

Meanwhile, the Institute for Supply Management's purchasing manager's index, a survey that measures manufacturing activity, fell again in June for an 8th straight month.

Marketplace's Mitchell Hartman gets us started.

Some parts of the economy were still chugging along, consumer spending, home building and buying.

But America's makers of stuff, manufacturers, have stalled out, says Mark Zandy at Moody's Analytics.

In terms of production, in terms of employment, it's going nowhere fast and it is at this point the weakest part of the broader economy.

This is a trend around the world, says Ariane Curtis, a capital economics in London.

Manufacturing activity actually attracted at a global level at the end of the second quarter.

Soaring interest rates have made buying stuff like appliances and factory equipment more expensive.

Meanwhile, consumers are spending less on goods and more on services that they missed out on during the pandemic.

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